M897 Artist Spotlight: September 2013

THE CRANE WIVES

The Crane Wives Are Refreshingly Modern

Story by LCC Radio Staff Reporter Karen Hopper

The
Crane Wives make being young and in a rising folk band seem like so much fun.
They’re friends, of course. Drums/percussion/vocals man Dan Rickabus says, “We
spend six days a week together! We have to be friends, or it wouldn’t work.”

While The Crane Wives began as a duo between Kate Pillsbury and Emilee
Petersmark (they met while working at a restaurant), the band evolved from
friendship. Dan and “banjaneer” Tom Gunnels grew up together in Ortonville and
they’ve been in 5 bands together. “This is definitely our favorite,” says Dan.

Dan and Tom roomed together at Grand Valley State University, where Dan met
bassist Ben Zito through Scientists of Sound, an audio club. Dan saw Emily and
Kate play open mics as solo artists, and was later invited to jam with Tom and
Kate.

Big fans of The Decemberists, Emilee and Kate decided to call their duo The
Crane Wives after The Decemberists’ album The Crane Wife, which is itself a
reference to a Japanese folk tale that Emilee and Kate liked. The name does
convey a certain folksiness and femininity.

Dan confirmed the importance of The Decemberists to the band’s evolution; before
he started listening to The Decemberists, he didn’t play folk music at all, but
it was their sound that inspired him to move towards folk in his own efforts.
Tom Gunnels, the “banjaneer” was a guitar player prior to The Crane Wives; he
learned banjo just to fit the sound.

Ben
Zito, the bass player who joined The Crane Wives after telling them that they
needed a bass player, says he doesn’t think they’ll ever leave Michigan. They’re
all in their mid-twenties now--they grew up here, went to school here, and still
live in Grand Rapids. Ben, Dan, Tom and Emilee are all from the Detroit suburbs,
while Kate is from Gaylord. But wanting to stay in Michigan doesn’t mean that
they don’t want to expand. They’re hoping to move towards national tours soon,
and they just bought a van and trailer to help make that happen. They’re trying
to hit the road harder with shows, and seem to be succeeding--the interviews
with Dan and Ben were done via phone due to the band's schedule.

“In the past we, did two albums in two years--we kind of rushed ourselves
because we were so excited to be making music,” says Dan. The Crane Wives
perform close to 30 original songs in their sets, and do only a handful of
covers (Smooth Criminal, Home, Black Betty, and Sound of Silence). But now
they’re opening up the process. They don’t have deadlines and are trying to let
material flow more naturally. Ben says that the material that is emerging during
this period is “Original stuff, innovative for us.”

But the touring is what sounds like the most fun. When they aren’t on stage,
they take advantage of their environment. After a recent gig in the Upper
Peninsula, the band went hiking at Sugar Mountain and did some cliff
diving--“more like jumping and flailing,” says Ben.

One
night in a hotel, they found a Gideon’s bible. Emilee was messing around on
banjo and Dan sang verses from Ecclesiastes--theatrically, no doubt.

If you’d ever listened to Dan’s voice mail, you wouldn’t be surprised by his
antics. “Hello, you’ve reached the science fiction technology communication
device of Dan Rickabus,” begins the recording. Dan’s voice then instructs you to
leave a message and promises to call you back, “IN THE FUTURE.”

Dan and Ben’s attitude toward being in a women-fronted band was refreshingly
modern. While Ben claims his role backstage is rather paternal--handling
finances and the business end--both Ben and Dan speak with high respect for
Emilee and Kate.

“I do feel that the voice of it is the two ladies,” says Dan, and notes that
Kate has said to him that she turns her tragedies into triumphs in song.

When asked, "So, being in a band called 'wives' doesn’t threaten your
masculinity?" Ben only chuckles and says that he’s “pretty secure in that.”